03/31/2010

A Few Zines hits Chicago on Monday (panel and reception on Friday, April 9) and it seems that each new venue grows the exhibition. This time we have a slew of new publications: David Garcia Studio's two MAPs (Manual of Architectural Possibilities), both Antarctica and Quarantine; Fred Scharmen's Losing My Edge, a lgnlgn-related release; hard copies of the new and prolific MAS Context (I can't believe how good #5 is); and the latest edition of Standpunkte (the German title roughly translates to "How
did you do that?"6
talks about architecture).

To get your hands on copies, come by the show at University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Architecture, Room 3100, 845 West Harrison Street, Chicago.

03/26/2010

Back in December I met with Iker Gil, the mastermind behind MAS Context (There's a new one out now!). We drank super-fueled Intelligentsia cortados at the Monadnock and cooked up a plan to bring A Few Zines to Chicago. Fast forward to spring, and the show opens at UIC's School of Architecture on April 5 and closes with a top notch panel on April 9.

I had imagined the Blue Lobsters piece running with full-page images from the publications mentioned, but sadly just the text was run. I think the editors ran out of space. Ah, the confines of print. Below is the text and you'll find my mini zine within a zine here.

Blue Lobsters

Late 90s. Print was probably already dead then. It had taken
too many phone calls to find a cheap offsetter. Indie bookstores feared the big
boxes cutting in on their Thirdspace. Distributors, bowing to shelving and
stocking requirements laid down by the chain store, put limits on the sizes of
independent magazines. (This was around the time Metropolis magazine dropped from full tabloid to its current
shelf-friendly size.)

Still, I was blissed out on the print shop’s Thomas Paine
authenticity. I figured it’d gloss my tracks with a meaning and texture not
found with rapid digital printing. The details: the smell of ink, rich and
bitter like coffee, the Berkeley Co-op apron worn by the grizzled anarchist,
the cranky press he quietly turned, and his punk rock partner’s punctilious
manner. I can’t remember if I printed 500 or 1,000 copies. Some sit in a box in
the basement. On my last visit home I opened it up: A hundred ochre-covered
pamphlets, surprisingly un-yellowed a decade on.

And now? Print is dead, again. As publishing empires
collapse, the market bets on journalism’s odds of survival. Consensus says
books are a lost cause. Are folks ready to cotton to Kindle? Has twitter killed
the blog, the book, and the building? (I ask in a mere 83 characters.)

As go buildings, so go design magazines. This past year saw
shelter and trade titles stumble and fold under the double deadweight of slow
building starts and curtailed ad revenue. A year after Lehman’s collapse,
missing consumer design rag Domino is
like missing cotton candy—a vague remembrance of a cavity-inducing indulgence,
so sweet at the time.

Indeed, I have to stop myself from falling into the vat of
saccharine nostalgia that surrounds the publishing in the grand scheme, architecture
publishing, and my own little niche of zinedom. Staple fold reminiscences, no
matter how open hearted, tend to lead to a single polar standoff: print versus
digital. But dividing publishing into two camps leaves us empty handed. Even
the Gray Lady, the New York Times,
splits her time between the two realms, pacifying those who stand and read the
paper on the subway and those who glean their info online.

Meanwhile a number small architecture and art publications
are sneaking into the space between the two modes. They are dependent on both
mediums. They rely on social networks and digital technologies for form and
content, but ultimately these wee volumes find their way into readers’ hands.
For Gary Fogelson, Phil Lubliner and Soner Ön, the Brooklyn-based trio who
makes up The Holster, publishing is performative. It calls attention to the act
of making, even if that act is really just stapling some laser printed sheets.
The collective commissioned sixteen artist to create PDFs, then set up their print-on-demand imprint, Demand & Supply, at
zine expos and book fairs. Armed
with laptop and printer, they publish in real time, straddling the
gap between intimacy and automation.

Ephemera obsessions are de rigueur within certain circles of
the contemporary art world. In 2001, the darling Hamburger Eyes established DIY publishing as the go-to format for
photogs wanting to capture the grit of everyday life. And galleries/retailers
like New York City’s Printer Matter and LA newcomer Ooga Booga curate short run
editions into a kind of artistic lifestyle. That architecture should eventually
re-embrace self-publishing after years of the book-versus-blog discourse is
welcome, if not entirely unsurprising. The discipline is known to be a bit
tardy.

Within the field of architecture and ubiquitous computing
the Situated Technologies Pamphlet Series
was relatively early adopter print-on-demand services, even as design students
had been using the technology for one-off books for awhile. The publication is
the outcome of a discussion on the Institute for Distributed Creativity (iDC)
mailing list, which then grew into a 2006 symposium at Urban Center and Eyebeam
in New York. Unlike the Supply & Demand series, it uses the mainstream online publisher
lulu.com as its printer and distributor. PDFs are available for free on the
Situated Technologies website, making the decision to read online or in hard
copy a personal choice.

I am tempted to call these new
publications “zombies,” following Todd Gannon’s assessment (Log, Fall 2008) of Archigram and other sixties
practitioners unbuilt work that persists in its influence after facing a
critical death. Especially since that groups’ publications provide the
emotional, if not intellectual or formal, underpinning of today’s self-publishing
efforts. Or as he puts it in the essay, “Return of the Living Dead: Archigram
and Architecture’s Monstrous Media:” “In nine and one-half eponymous pamphlets
released from 1961 to 1974, Archigram took advantage of the highly
reconfigurable space of the printed page to manipulate forms, juxtapose
elements, and orchestrate architectural experiments impossible in other media.”

But given that
experiments in other media could now be taken to define much of architectural
practice, I prefer to call these half-breeds “mutants.” Living between paper
and screen, mutants are part of publishing’s evolution, even if a specific
characteristic proves too unwieldy to pass on to the next generation.Some mutations are sneaky. As is the loud
paper broadsheet, published as half
issue, half catalogue for the “A Few Zines” show that opened at Studio-X in
January 2009. Designer Chris Grimley used the column width of a blog post to
organize the page. Without being explicit, the broadsheet triggers digital
references.

An
iPhone is the mutant appendage needed to read Standpunkte One. Aptly entitled This Will _ This, the first issue features a single essay by John Harwood and Jesse
LeCavalier who conceived the pamphlet with graphic designer Guillaume Mojon. (Standpunkte Magazine itself is out of Basel, Switzerland and edited by
Reto Geiser and Tilo Richter.) A shiny black cipher, the publication is full of
totemic black and white graphics. Yet, a 2D bar code reader app brings the
pamphlet to life. Encryption is at the root of this first issue. A scan of the
cover graphics takes you to www.thiswill-this.net.
Where the editorial statement reads: "You will not to be able to read
this, at least not all of it. This is fine with us." By placing the phone
a filter between the web and the printed page, This Will _ This, frustrates the act of reading, but still maintains
the need for a book object. It explores, as the editors write, "the
thresholds and overlaps between material and immaterial media.”

It
is impossible to state that mutant publishing will bring traditional print
media back from death’s door. That economic model needs to independently
reassemble its DNA. (Then again, it may reanimate quicker than we think. Tina
Brown’s online Daily Beast just announced that it is teaming up with Perseus
Books Group to create rapid-print paperbacks.) But these mutants—esoteric
pamphlets operating at the riff of “material and immaterial media”—show dynamic
signs of life and happily elude any nostalgic impulse.

09/14/2009

As promised, I sorted through the photos taken by Bryan Jackson of the A Few Zines opening and panel. Thanks again to everyone involved, a collaborative process if there ever was. John Southern went beyond the call of duty, thank you.

08/08/2009

Standpunkte is a A Few Zines newcomer. Edited by Reto Geiser andTilo Richter, it sports a fancy advisory board including Luke Bulman, Salomon Frausto, Jürgen Mayer H., Mark Lee, Rahul Mehrotra, and Philip
Ursprung. Jesse LeCavalier presented Issue One to me over coffee a few weeks ago. It contains his collaboration architectural historian John Harwood and graphic designer Guillaume Mojon.

A black cipher, I wasn't sure what to make of a publication full of totemic graphics. Then Jesse pulled out his iPhone, equipped with a 2D bar code reader, and brought the pamphlet to life. A scan of the cover graphics takes you to www.thiswill-this.net. Where the editorial statement reads: "You will not to be able to read this, at least not all of it. This is fine with us."

Or as the editors write, ""the thresholds and overlaps between material and immaterial media."

Of special interest is the display of information in a nonlinear interplay of different media. By means of a historical and spatial analysis of the ambivalent nature between built space and information space, the authors explore the organizational complex of the built environment, propagating encrypted architecture and urbanism as models to speculate for the future of our surroundings.

Standpunkte was founded in 2005 to promote dialogue and critical exchange among emerging voices in architecture and its related fields both in Switzerland and abroad. This new publication series aims to foster the dissemination and development of architectural ideas, encouraging a productive collaboration between architects, writers, and graphic designers. Each issue is jointly conceived, written, anddesigned by a young team that specifically comes together for this venue. By blurring the boundaries of the three disciplines involved in the making of this magazine, design and content are amalgamated into a unique contribution.

The publication proposes an interface between the digital and print realms, making the scanning device the medium, and making null the polarity that's cropped up between paper and virtual publishing.

Standpunkte will be regularly publishing manifestos, ideas, critical investigations, or designs that represent current positions or comment on historical subjects from a contemporary perspective. Please send cards, letters, or e-mails with proposals and comments to Standpunkte, Hammerstrasse 90, 4057 Basel, Switzerland, or to info at standpunkte dot org.

08/07/2009

Just one week until A Few Zines lands on Hollywood Boulevard. The panel will kick ass, we've got a DJ, roach coaches (did someone say Cool Haus ice cream?), and tequila. There is even a bartender ready to mix up a margarita. Things may get messy.

Also making its stateside debut is Go Sheffo. The folks at Go are zine romantics in the best sense. They relish the cut, paste, Xerox format and use it to make a case for why Sheffield, UK is an amazing place. Including a plea for Jarvis Cocker to return home to be the city's poet.

Here's how they describe themselves:

We talk about the cities and places we love, and what makes them special: the buildings, the people, the streets.

We
are not interested in retail per square foot or mixed use developments.
We have no time for buzzwords. Our cities aren't fresh or luxury or
sexy. They are much more than that. This is about a city's soul.

Soul city, now we're talking. Check out all the issues online, then come to LA and handle the hard copies. While you're on the Go site, check out their 2005 master plan for Sheffield, Open Your Eyes, which is also in the exhibition.

07/05/2009

Yep, that's right. A Few Zines is heading to Los Angeles. The little exhibition that could will do a star turn on Hollywood Blvd thanks to the help John Southern, Tim Durfee, and Mohamed Sharif. The LA Forum hosts the insta-show for three days.

The festivities kick off Friday, August 14 with a panel discussion and opening party. Our lineup of panelists is huge. I'm joined by Juliette Bellocq, Todd Gannon, Wes Jones, Ted Kane, Paul Petrunia, Margi Reeve. John Southern is moderating.

I'll be hanging around the gallery Saturday and Sunday, so come on by, bring along a coffee or a beer, read a couple zines, and have a chat.

Marginalia: Edge Conditions in Publishing and Practice looks at the role publishing—blogs, journals, zines, and magazines—plays in shaping contemporary speculative practices. The title, Marginalia, is drawn from the term for a scribbles or editorial comment made in the margin and, in this context, refers to notes on the edges of the discipline. The show explores future publishing models and how self-publishing, blogging, and social media give designers the tools to shape alternative practices.

Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design Gallery:

Founded in January of 1987, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design plays a vital role in Los Angeles by initiating and supporting events, publications, and symposia in this city and beyond.

Since 2008 the Forum has shared a gallery space with Woodbury University, whose generosity has made seasonal exhibitions possible.

07/01/2009

This past weekend I attended the NYC Zine Fest 2009 held at the Brooklyn Lyceum. I hadn't been to a zine gathering like this in years. It was fantastic to see self-publishing still going strong and I was struck by the intimacy and personal connection that each booth held. It was hard for me to make quick progress through the Fest because at every table I got into conversation with a zine or print maker about their work or where and how they print. (I loved the prints from Just Seeds.)

Next to the the Printed Matter table hosted was a collection of art zines commissioned by The Holster, an art collective publishing group based in Brooklyn, NY and made up of Gary Fogelson, Phil Lubliner and Soner Ön.
They had set up a print-on-demand service for the zines (see above diagram), which straddled the gap between intimacy and automation. Each artist submitted a PDF that was then selected by a visitor and printed in real time.

06/11/2009

Espresso malt balls from Economy Candy = fountain of youth. They are the fuel that powered me down the street to the New Museum and up four floors in the apple-flavored Jolly Rancher green elevators. The sugar rush lead to the zine exhibit on view as part of The Generational: Younger Than Jesus. Several dozen recent publications were laid out on a low table ready for reading. Paging through them affirmed that self publishing is going strong. Even as some of the works brigde between print and online, they still need to assert their objectness.

And I was thrilled to find a number of that were publications featured in A Few Zines included, thanks to Brian Sholis, who helped organize that part of the show.